ABERDARE NATIONAL PARK

Located in the central high-lands west of Mt Kenya between Nyeri and Naivasha

CLIMATE

Cool and misty. Heavy rain occurs year round, averaging 1000 mm per annum on the drier northwestern slopes to as much as 3000 mm per annum in the southeast areas

WILDLIFE

The park is home to most of the larger mammals, Is the home to most endangered species which include: the rare Bongo and the Giant Forest Hog, It is estimated that more than 2000 elephants roam the clouded hills and misty glades. Black Rhino are also present in the area.Other game include: Leopard, Serval cats, Colobus Monkeys Sykes and the black faced vervets monkeys, African wild cat and spotted iena.

BIRDS

Over 290 species have been recorded including the Aberdare cisticola that is critically endangered and the Jackson's francolin. Plentiful birds of prey include the augur buzzard, African goshawk and the superb African crowned eagle which preys on monkey.

ATTRACTIONS

Lesatima peak, Kinangop peak, waterfalls, walks in the moorlands, Twin hills, Elephant hills and Table mountains, Second largest population of black rhinos in Salient and Northern Aberdare, The Kimathi Hideout/Mau Mau caves,

ACTIVITIES

Game drive, trekking and camping

After the death of King George IV, Princess Elisabeth ascended the British throne. She was on a honeymoon at treetops Lodge in the Aberdare National Park. The park was created in the 1950s and host the ‘first tree hotel in Africa’. A 278 Km electric fence being constructed by the Ark organization will minimize human- wildlife conflict. Like all of East's africa's mountains, the Aberdare Range owes its existence to the tectonic forces that gave birth to the Great Rift Valley. Between five and six million years ago, the earth's crust heaved and strained with volcanic eruptions bursting through fissures to produce both the Aberdare and the Mau Ranges. Their flanks were both swallowed by the subsequent sinking of the Great Rift Valley. The peaks of the Aberdare Range are both striking and relatively accessible; all can be scaled on foot. To the Kikuyu People the tortured shapes of the range have always been known as Nyandarua, meaning "the drying hide". If you look at the mountains from a distance you will see why: they resemble the shape of an animal skin that has been pegged out to dry. The Kikuyu also know the range as Thimbara meaning: "the place of mist and gloom", the alternative place of Ngai (God), the main residence being Mt. Kenya.

The range was named the Aberdare Range in 1884 by the Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson, after lord Aberdare, the then president of the Royal Geographical Society.